Quite a lot has happened in the past week. My relationship progressed a lot with Yasurouka but at the same time it fell downhills too. I witnessed something which I wasn't really concerned about, anyway.

I was lying on my bed while staring at the ceiling. A lot of thoughts were running through my head. And the slight possibility of me not being able to make her fall for me was also there.

Suddenly, Lilith's head appeared in front of my eyes and her soft white hair fell on my face. Removing it with my right hand, I peeked at her from behind the curtain of her white hairs.

"What?" I looked at her as she was staring into my eyes with a sober smile on her cheeks.

"What? Can I not talk to you?" She pouted and moved away from me.

"I don't know. Can you?" I sat up and looked at her as she put a spoonful of ice cream from the bucket in her hand to her mouth.

"So, how are things going with the vessel?" She said in between the bites. Who is crazy enough to bite ice cream? Why is she like this? It feels so illegal watching her bite ice cream.

"To be honest with you, a lot of things happened in the last week." I answered, diverting my mind from the horrible way she was eating the ice cream.

"Eh? Did you discover that you're not straight?" She tilted her head, and there was a cheeky smile on her face.

"I… shut up, please." I sighed. How can someone possibly speak so much crap as her?

"Teehee" she chucked as she playfully hit her head with the hand she was holding the spoon in.

"Anyways… so like with Reina… things have been quite good." I said, as I leaned back against the wall and raised my right knee a little and rested my right hand on it.

"Is that so?" She smiled at me, narrowing her eyes.

"Yes, I actually got hold of a key factor yesterday. So I'm feeling a bit confident now." I answered her honestly.

"Yeah, she is quite a tough nut to crack." She nodded and took another spoonful of ice cream inside her mouth. Judging from her tone, it's obvious that she already knows everything about the vessels.

"Seems like you have done your research on her as well." I said, trying to turn the conversation towards something I have been thinking about for a long time now.

"Huh? Not at all… it's not really difficult for me to figure these things out." She claimed proudly, with a smile on her face.

"I see. Tell me one thing…" Looking at her reaction, it seems like I'll have pressed into this matter a bit farther. I was actually quite curious about the fundamental functionality of this contract.

"Mhm?" She looked at me and I continued.

"You want this contract to end quickly, right?" I asked my question right away.

"Of course, you're even asking this." She sighed and rolled her eyes at me as I asked something really obvious.

"Then… Why can't you tell me about the targets? Me gathering intel about them wastes a lot of unnecessary time, doesn't it?" Hearing her reply, I pushed in the real question I wanted to ask for quite some time now.

Because I've been noticing that she always gives me the basic details about the target but never goes deeper into that. But at the end, it seems like she already knows about the vessel's problems.

According to her, vessels have negative energy due to some underlying problem within them. But it's underlying and I can't read minds like her, it takes me quite a lot of time to figure those out.

"It does, but I wouldn't call it unnecessary." She answered my question in a rather vague manner but still direct to the point.

"Huh?" I shifted my gazes towards her.

"What?" She walked towards the bed and sat in front of me. Her long white hair moved freely in front of my eyes, as she adjusted her position to sit comfortably.

"From what I've noticed ever since the first target was captured successfully…" I took a slight pause and glanced at her as her head was half turned towards me and she was looking at me with curious eyes.

"Yeah?" She gestured to me to continue.

"This contract doesn't seem to have a strict policy regarding the time I take." Since she isn't going to tell me, I'll make her spill the beans.

"See, it's not like you can stick with a target for the rest of your life and die naturally." She said in a casual tone.

"Ah… what will happen if I indeed do that." I asked.

"I told you, your soul will get traded."

"Wasn't that the condition if I fail to make someone fall for me?" Was she really falling in the web of my words?

"Yeah… it was… but..." She looked nervous, as she gulped down another spoon of ice cream. Even looking at her face, I can't tell if she was nervous or not, but the way she was eating the ice cream made me assume that she must be nervous.

"But?" I looked at her and asked in a soft tone. I was trying my best to not show my desperation about this thing.

"Listen, I can't tell even if I want to." She sighed as her shoulders slouched. I stared into her eyes, but she averted her gaze from me. Somehow, I was sure that there were things that she was hiding from me. I don't know if it was out of self interest, or something else. And as for the contract, there's still a lot more than what meets the eye.

"Why is that?" I still kept asking to see how far I can push my luck today.

"The contract forbids me." She answered in a low voice.

The contract forbids her? I thought she didn't have any relation with the contract except to supervise me doing the tasks properly. This is quite the thing that slipped out of her mouth.

"The contract forbids you? Isn't this contract for me?" I pointed out what she said to check what her reply would be. I know she'll lie about it anyways but sometimes, following a trail of lies can show you the path towards the truth.